May 04, 2011

The El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail will be the site of a 175 mile-long "Sale on the Trail".

Land owners and businesses located on Highway 6 in LA and Highway 21 in TX from Natchitoches to Crockett,will hold yard sales, flea markets, festivals, trade shows, sidewalk sales, and more along this famous trail.

Registration is required. For more information, please contact the Natchitoches Area Convention & Visitors Bureau at (800) 259-1714. Visit www.elcaminorealtx.com for additional information on the Trail.

Cane River Green Market
May 7th
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Natchitoches' only farmers market will be selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to handmade crafts. Events and promotions for this event include demonstrations, special programming and live music. For more information contact Courtney Hornsby at (866) 941-6246 or visit www.canerivergreenmarket.com.

Rebel State Historic Site
10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Rebel State Historic Site will host a classic car, tractor and motorcycle show. Activities include live entertainment by The Davis Family, C.J. Michaels and Hosea Parrie. Food vendors will be available. The Red River Street Rods will be making a special appearance. The Park is located at 1260 Hwy. 1221 in Marthaville, LA 71450. For more information call (888) 677-3600.

Fort St. Jean Baptiste
May 14th
10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Visitors to Fort St. Jean Baptiste, 155 rue Jefferson, will be introduced to the 18th century French arms and artillery through a variety of discussions and demonstrations culminating in the firing of the Fort's 4lb garrison gun. Weather permitting. Admission $4 ages 12-62. For more information call (888) 677-7853.

The Alexandria Museum of Art is organizing the First Louisiana Dragon Boat Races on the Red River on Saturday, May 14, 2011.

Dragon Boat racing is a sport that has been around China for hundreds of years, and it has grown in popularity in North America. It is an athletic event that is enjoyed by all ages and all levels of physical accomplishment. Each boat consists of a long boat, 20 paddlers, a drummer in front and a helmsman in the rear.

The Museum is using the expertise of a Montreal based Dragon Boat Racing Company to assist with this exciting and unique fundraising event. The race will provide safe exercise and camaraderie for hundreds of participants and wholesome entertainment for thousands of spectators.

“We have the Red River outside our backdoor--why not use it for a fun community activity?” says Catherine Pears, Executive Director of the Alexandria Museum of Art.

The Museum looks forward to bringing together groups from all cross-sections of Central Louisiana. The competition is open to businesses, churches, schools, athletic groups, military units, government agencies, and groups of friends.

“This is such a unique fundraising event that we hope to grow each year and make a mainstay in the Alexandria events schedule,” says Pears.

Already many large employers are embracing this team building exercise with CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital, Rapides Regional Medical Center, and Central Louisiana Surgical Hospital on board. Other local companies such as Union Tank Car, Red River Bank, Capital One Bank, Walker Automotive, Diamond Grill/Loyd Hall, and Central Louisiana Home Health have already committed to being a part of the inaugural event.

“I think these larger companies see the long term potential of this idea and how it could grow to become an economic plus for the city,” says Wayne Denley, Chairman of the Boat Race Committee. “Other major cities across the country have built these events into city-wide festivals. We are thinking big--that is why we have named it The Louisiana Dragon Boat Races.”

To find out more about how to participate or be on a boat team, go online to www.themuseum.org. Watch for a specific website: www.louisianadragonboatraces.com to be launched for the event, which will include more information. Paddles Up!

The Heflin Sawmill will be held on May 6 and 7. This year Louisiana’s own, Sammy Kershaw will be featured in concert on Friday, May 6 at 8:00 at the Donnie Nelson Memorial Park in Heflin, LA. Tickets for the concert are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. Call (318)377-9799 to order tickets now and bring your lawn chairs for this great concert. Admission to the Sawmill Festival will be free and offers a car show, store vendors, food booths, and arts and crafts. The concert and festival are family friendly and no alcohol is allowed. For more information contact Cathy Lee at (318)377-7539.

UDirections:U Take Highway 371 south from Interstate 20 at Exit #47 and go approximately 8 miles. Turn left on Highway 531 and left at the next 4 way stop sign.

This event is funded in part by a grant from the Webster Parish Convention and Visitors Commission.

The Gardens of the American Rose Center is participating in the 3rd Annual National Public Gardens Day by offering free admission. Gardens are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
National Public Gardens Day is a national event created by the American Public Gardens Association in partnership with Rain Bird. It will be hosted by more than 500 botanic gardens, arboreta and zoos from coast to coast.

MAY 7, 2011: SPRING BLOOM CELEBRATION
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Join us to enjoy our peak spring bloom! Visit with a variety of plant experts all in one place! Various plants, including roses will be available for purchase. Admission is free.
Dr. Allen Owings, Extension Specialist in Ornamental Horticulture working in commercial nursery crops and home grounds, with the LSU Agricultural Center, Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service. Dr. Owings has been with the Extension Service for several years and is rich in experience with the culture of ornamental plants. His research/demonstration project areas include plant evaluation, home grounds and commercial nursery crop best management practices (BMPs). Dr. Owings will be on hand to answer questions on a variety of plant topics. Betty Vickers, Old Garden Rose Specialist. Heritage Rose Foundation Officer and Rose Librarian, Founding Member of Heritage Rose District in New York, American Rose Society volunteer, former officer and member of the Dallas Area Rose Society and International Rose Show Judge in Paris, France. Betty will be on hand to answer questions about roses and other garden plants.

Saletha Clanton, Founding Member of Ark La Tex Rose and Garden Society in Shreveport, ARS member will provide information related to local gardening opportunities and region-specific issues about roses and other ornamental plants, and will have some roses and other plants on hand for sale. Ark La Tex Herb Society members Rose, Arline and Bobbie will have a table set up with information and will provide guidance pertaining to herbs, as well as refreshments for sale using herbs fresh from the garden.

MAY 8, 2011: MOTHER’S DAY IN THE GARDEN1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Bring your mom to enjoy the roses! Gardens are open 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Admission is free.

Information from Gardens of the American Rose Center
For more information, visit www.ars.org.

Louisiana must truly be the festivities and celebrations capital of the United States. We do love to party don't we. Festivals, concerts, art exhibits, museums, historial places, community events, food extravaganzas, musical concerts, sports and the list goes on and on. You can always find information about some event in Louisiana in speciality magazines, newspapers, on the radio and TV and on the web.

There are a number of internet sites created especially to share information about Louisiana happenings. There is a nice listing of events in our state government's travel and tourism web site which lists many festivals and events for the whole year. We have several well known Louisiana travel sites that contain events calendars. Major newspaper sites usually carry a listing of events local to their coverage area. Some personal sites also post upcoming events for our state.

I have canvassed a number of travel and tourism web sites specifically for the state of Louisiana. In my research, I googled for every site I could find that offered an events calendar for Louisiana. There is no shortage of things to do in our state. Louisiana is called the Sportsman's Paradise for good reason, for there are plenty of fishing and hunting opportunities here. To augment the outdoor sportsman's love for the outdoors, there is the added thrill of fishing tournaments, hunters courses, conventions, festivals, boat shows, gun and knives shows, wild game cooking classes just to name a few. In addition, sports of almost every description, from Little League Ball to the Saints, and from roller skating to boat and car races can be found here.

There is a festival or celebration for nearly every type of food and concoction native to Louisiana. There are many sites that report on cook-offs, food fests and the like for the state of Louisiana.

For a softer side of things to do, there are always beauty pageants, music or dance recitals, and talent competitions. Perhaps you lean toward literary diversions, the theater, or concert performances. If it's music you like, you can find a potpourri of styles in an assortment of venues. There is no shortage of events to announce.

There is no shortage of opportunity to learn about our friends and neighbors with the gumbo of cultures we have in Louisiana. There are cultural exhibits, handcrafted artistry, folklife displays and museums that share our cultural diversity.

Unfortunately, my research has shown that in spite of an abundance of events that need to be publicized, north central Louisiana gets the short end of the stick. In my internet searches and some hard copy publication investigations, I have discovered that the number of listed events for north central Louisiana are not proportional as compared with our neighbors to the south.

Since I have created an events list for north/central Louisiana at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AsTheCrowFlies/147636581936823 , I have contiually searched for and posted hundreds of events in the north/central Louisiana coverage area of As The Crow Flies. My purpose is to draw attention to this lack of publicity for north/central Louisiana and to perhaps find a workable solution.

I want to know that we are getting our fair share of promotion which ultimately includes
recognition, resources and not least of all, tourism dollars. Most non-government sites that share a calendar usually claim to be representing the whole state, though I have found this is not the case. But you would think that our state government listings would have a more balanced representation.

From our very own state of Louisiana website here: http://www.crt.state.la.us/search/default.asp under lafestivals.xls a list of Louisiana festivals and events, out of a total of 510 events, less than 17% are listed for north/central Louisiana with the majority of those being in big city venues such as Monroe, Shreveport or cultural hot spots such as Natchitoches. Even Alexandria came in with only 3 events.

When doing a search of a well known official travel site for Louisiana, (louisianatravel.com), I found in a search of the 13 areas listed, 5 of those were in central or north Louisiana. Of those areas, there were a total of 35 events listed for a 4 week span between April 30 and May 28. Sounds OK until you look at the totals. In the same time period there were a total of 265 events listed for areas south of Alexandria. Of those listings in Alexandria area, 6 of the events were in conjunction with the Civil War Sesquicentennial. Events that were special this year only and will not appear in the same context again. There were many other events in north/central Louisiana that were disregarded completely. When the numbers are crunched, Central and North Louisiana gets 16 1/2 % of the total listings from this travel site though the actual number of events are many more than published.

The state government of Louisiana has a program called: Louisiana Main to Main: A Cultural Roadshow. From the site they say: Louisiana Main to Main is a program to collectively showcase our culture, commerce, history, and our abundance of creative and natural assets, and encourages road trips from one Main Street community to the next. This program list a total of 30 towns in the program but only 7 are in the northern/central region of Louisiana. This gives the whole region north of Alexandria only 23% of the promotion and monies allotted. Some personal sites claiming to be promoting Louisiana statewide include little to no north/central Louisiana events. After researching several such sites these were some of the results.

Some sites have NO listings for North Louisiana festivals despite claiming to be a listing site for the whole United States such as

0 % http://festivalsandevents.com/festival.php?state=LA
0 % http://southfest.com/louisiana.shtml The southfest site has listings from 9 southern states. In it's Louisiana listings of festivals, not one event is listed for north/central Louisiana.

16% http://www.laffnet.org/
6 1/2 % http://www.cajunradio.org/louisianafestivals.html
12 % Even Wikipedia with it's list of over 139 festivals managed to share only 12% of festivals in our area of the state.

From our state sites and other travel/tourism sites and publications we get only 9.7 % of the total publicity for events in the entire state of Louisiana.

You can check out these sites for yourself, see if you can find a fair share of publicity for north/central Louisiana.

Not to limit my search to festivals and fairs I went searching for other types of events.
Here are the results:

I looked up Summer Camps in Louisiana. Out of a total of 11 from this site
http://www.americantowns.com/la/batonrouge-summer-camps, two were actually above
Alexandria, yet they were claiming to be giving information about summer camps in Louisiana.

Here on http://www.mysummercamps.com/camps/louisiana-summer-camps.html I found 52 camps but only 6 of the total were from Alexandria or north of Alexandria Louisiana. There are many more summer camps & children's camps in north/central Louisiana than just over 1 %.

And just for fun I checked out this site http://www.foodreference.com/html/louisiana-
festivals.html to find that only 1 out of 37 Louisiana food events were listed as being in the
north/central Louisiana area.

Check out As The Crow Flies and see for yourself that we here in north/central Louisiana have many, many opportunities for tourism.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AsTheCrowFlies/147636581936823
If you are as unhappy with these numbers as I am, how about let's do something about it.

I will continue to post the events that I find on my page but it would be a great help if chambers of commerce, town site, newspapers and other publications as well as museums and art commissions would band together to request equal opportunity and publicity from the state of Louisiana and web site that promote the southern part of our state so heavily.

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